Hands Off Venezuela statement on Libya and misinformation

The Hands Off Venezuela campaign condemns the recent smear campaign against Venezuela by Conservative politicians, especially William Hague, and certain media outlets in the UK, consisting of spreading false information that Colonel Gaddafi had fled from Libya to Venezuela. The cynical purpose of this lie was to label President Chavez “guilty by association” with Gaddafi.

It is very revealing that the right-wing media and politicians in Britain which denigrate Venezuela as a “dictatorship” hardly had a word of criticism of the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt until their overthrow was imminent. Even worse, Gaddafi’s forces are now killing fellow Libyans with weapons sold to them by the UK and other western countries just as did Mubarak in Egypt and Ben Ali in Tunisia.

We reiterate that far from being a “dictatorship” President Chavez and the Bolivarian movement have consistently demonstrated that in one election after another they have had majority support from the people of Venezuela.

Hands Off Venezuela applauds and welcomes the recent and continuing uprising of the masses in many countries in North Africa and the Middle East against corrupt and dictatorial governments which have been tied politically and economically to multinational corporations and Imperialism.

We welcome the overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak in Tunisia and Egypt respectively. We believe that these developments run parallel with the Bolivarian revolution. Indeed they are part of the same worldwide struggle for a fairer and better society as the demands of the masses in the Arab world have been both political; freedom of organisation, speech, assembly and elections and economic; for jobs, lower food prices and equality.

Just as Hands Off Venezuela stands against imperialist intervention in Venezuela and Latin America, we are also against such intervention in Libya and elsewhere.

Hands Off Venezuela National Steering Committee, Britain, March 6th, 2011